Throughout my campaign, I have been focused on getting back to the basics and keeping our community safe. While streetlights, crosswalks and speed bumps are important, I also see the need to further invest in our Tacoma police department. In 1998 our city had 184,000 residents and 383 police officers, as of 2018 we have 216,000 residents and 371 police officers. We have added 35,000 new residents and lost 12 police officers.

As I am out in the neighborhood (having knocked on over 11,000 doors to listen to our neighbors concerns!), public safety comes up frequently. Neighbors are concerned about property crime, speeding cars, package thefts, and other criminal activity. The people I talk to are happy with our police department, but they can tell they are spread very thin across our growing city.

As the only candidate talking about public safety in this district, I think we need to continue to examine ways we can support our police department.

• We need to hire enough officers and provide them with the resources to keep our neighborhoods safe. With more support they can further build community connections and be partners in community safety.
• We need to look at how our officers are utilized. I have heard many people that there is no traffic enforcement for speeding cars on the major roads in our community (21^st, Pearl, Stevens to name a few).
• We need to invest in services for our residents in need and in crisis so police officers can focus on addressing crimes and not providing social services.

Being in education, I know the importance of supporting those that work closely with the public. Our police officers are committed public servants and I look forward to supporting them as they keep us safe.